City OKs talks with Carroll on Smart Park redevelopment
Daily Journal of Commerce
by Alison Ryan
08/13/2007
Redevelopment of the seven-story Smart Park garage at Southwest 10th Avenue and Yamhill Street is moving forward, but upcoming negotiations still have issues to resolve.
Portland City Council on Wednesday voted to let the Portland Development Com-mission begin garage improvment negotiations with developer John Carroll.
The city and the PDC in March pulled back a request for proposals to redevelop the Smart Park garage. Four developers, Gerding Edlen Development Co., Weston Investment Co., Carroll Investments and Parr Financial, had responded to a June 2006 request for qualifications; all four were found qualified. But only Carroll and Parr responded to the RFP, which asked developers to offer ideas for renovation of retail and development of commercial and residential uses while still keeping the block under city ownership.
Because the proposals from Carroll Investments and Parr Financial each called for ownership of the block, the city threw them out. But, said David Logsdon, Smart Park manager and the city lead on the redevelopment project, the city still wanted a fix for the garage, so it continued discussions with the developers.
“We offered to meet will all four, just to find out what would work, what wouldn’t work, in a development of that space,” he said.
Ultimately, said PDC senior development manager Lew Bowers, Carroll said he thought adding a tower on top of the existing garage while the city continued operation of the Smart Park, which earns $1.1 million of revenue per year, would work.
“If we can get those air rights used, that’s a home run from our point of view,” Bowers said.
Exactly what the tower will include, Carroll said, will evolve as talks with the PDC continue. But it will definitely be an “aggressive” mixed-use project, Carroll said, combining residential units with commercial space that he’s hoping to offer to a collection of nonprofits, or perhaps even an alternative school, that would benefit from the urban location. The retail at ground level will also get a makeover.
The Carroll proposal meets the city’s original goals for the redevelopment, Logsdon said. The building atop the garage, expected to be more than 25 stories, would add a greater mix of uses. The dark, underused retail spaces at ground level would get a lift.
But, the PDC’s Bowers said, there are major issues still ahead for the process. Seismically upgrading the garage so that a tower can safely stand atop it would cost a lot. Whether or not the parking garage can remain open during construction is another issue. And how much the project will cost, and how much of that cost will be tempered by public funds, needs to be determined as well.
Wednesday’s City Council endorsement doesn’t mean the project’s a sure thing, Bowers said, but that “we agree to talk about this exclusively with each other to see if it’s a deal.” If it is a deal, the city would need to approve a development and disposition agreement that would outline the public commitment and the private commitment to the project.
If Carroll’s tower becomes reality, it’ll sit directly next to another skyward-reaching piece of architecture: Park Avenue West, the 412-foot, 35-story tower that developer Tom Moyer is planning for Southwest Park Avenue and Yamhill Street.
The addition of 25 or more stories atop the existing seven-story garage would put Carroll’s project on a similar scale. The height limit for the block is 460 feet. Carroll said he plans to pursue full build-out for the block.
“Press the envelope,” he said. “Let’s get the density where it’s supported.”
So far, Bowers said, he’s excited by what Carroll’s proposing. The garage currently does what it’s supposed to do – house cars – but it’s not visually appealing. The early conceptual designs by Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects, Bowers said, are transformative.
“You wouldn’t recognize it,” he said.
The concepts Ankrom Moisan has come up with, Carroll said, are still loose, offering a range of solutions. But he wants something great.
“In my lifetime, I’d like to contribute something to the skyline and to strengthen downtown,” he said, “and this project is an opportunity to do that.”
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